I realise that liberal means many things to many people, but its really taking the piss to suggest that national service is liberal as David Boyle does: Yes to National Service I cannot believe LibDems might consider this. So much for individual freedom and local autonomy. Instead lets have forced labour (of the young of course - [...]
Who heard the item on the Today programme about introducing a non-military national service? Admittedly it came after the surprising skewering of the Israeli military spokesman over white phosphorous, but it was important nonetheless, and covers the article in the latest Prospect by Frank Field and James Crabtree. This is why I think it is vital for Lib Dems: 1. Because none of our intractable social issues are susceptible to permanent change without an absolutely massive injection of voluntary effort by ordinary people, way beyond our current volunteering infrastructure. 2. Because in the USA, this is a leading liberal issue. ...
The Guardian reports that glacier ice in the Pyrenees has declined by 90% in the past century.
Here is an extract from my letter to Conservative County Councillor Keith Glazier, who is the Lead Councillor for Children's Services: 'The Liberal Democrats have undertaken a community survey recently in Tressell Ward and, accompanying various concerns about community safety, there have been numerous comments made about the lack of provision for young people. First of all, [...]
Chris Grayling says:If I'm home secretary, the police should expect to get much more freedom to do the job - but I want to make it absolutely clear to our police chiefs that I will expect them to deliver real improvements in return - and if they don't there'll be all hell to pay.Wow! What's he going to do to those police chiefs? Shout:I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in! at them..
WINTER MAINTENANCE : Chris has taken up concerns from residents in Cardross Street and Cardross Place with Dundee City Council about winter maintenance here. ACTION ON GRAFFITI : Chris has asked the Council's Rapid Response Team if they will remove graffiti at the Anstruther Road lock-ups, following complaints from residents about the mess.
Parents have reportedly complained that a presenter on children's TV channel CBeebies is "scaring their children" because she had one arm ! Quite astonishingly these parents claim their children are so disturbed to see that someone on TV does not conform to their perfect vision of the world that the kids are having nightmares ! What utterly useless parents these people must be if they cannot explain simply to their children that people in the world are different from each other, some have disabilities, some need wheelchairs, some are ill, some have spots, some run faster than others, some have ...
Getting away from the fact that released detainee Binyam Mohammad appears to have been tortured by US officials, something which any true believer in democracy is totally opposed to, how many others feel less safe because he is in the country tonight ? As I understand it he came to the UK from Ethiopia, but despite having no links with Pakistan he travelled there and then on to Taliban controlled Afghanistan, strangely leaving Afghanistan when the Taliban were overthrown and was then captured by the US when trying to use a false passport to travel back to the UK. Why ...
Mon 23rd
21:57
Welcome to my new colleagues - and why Lewisham Labour should be ashamed of themselves
Last Thursday saw the double by-election in Downham, and I'm delighted to say that my two new colleagues are Lib Dems Jenni Clutten and Duwayne Brooks. Both of them will make fantastic councillors and I'm looking forward to their contributions to the Council and the Lib Dem Group. My pleasure at the result on Thursday was marred by the manner in which the Labour Party conducted themselves throughout the election. I don't normally make party political points on this site, but like others, I think everyone should be aware of what's gone on in Downham over the last few weeks. ...
Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Not the sort of people I'd want to do business with next time I feel like flicking my tail in the Mediterranean. What a comments car crash.
Quite possibly when it is £70,000 blown on first class train fares for councillors and senior staff. As the Blackpool Gazette reports of its Conservative-controlled council: BLACKPOOL Council has spent more than £70,000 on first class rail travel in the past 18 months. The figure - today slammed by one senior councillor as "astonishing" - was revealed amid claims some councillors and senior officers were wasting taxpayers' cash on expensive "jollies" to London ... The Gazette highlights the spending today as part of our It's Your Money campaign to investigate how public cash is spent - and sometimes misspent. Liberal ...
Many local residents wouldn't know that the Labour Party had selected a candidate to contest the Epping Forest parliamentary seat at the next general election. Many will be surprised that he has stepped down, or pushed, we do not know and the local Labour party has started selection again. One declared candidate is Tony Clements. Be interested to see how long he stays around for.
I thought last week's local assembly went really well. We had a good turnout (over 100 people once again) and good discussions on Leegate, youth issues, the environment and parking. I've already posted about the youth survey we're planning and I'll post more about Leegate and the environment in due course, but I thought it would be useful to explain what happened on parking. We discussed the thorny issue of parking back in September, and given how strongly people feel about the issue, I thought a surprising amount of consensus emerged. Most people there recognised that the current CPZ model ...
This week's selection of the best in British blogging can be found at Redemption Blues.
Last week Timothy Garston Ash wrote: For 30 years I have been travelling to unfree places, from East Germany to Burma, and writing about them in the belief that I was coming from one of the freest countries in the world. I wanted people in those places to enjoy more of what we had. In the last few years, I have woken up - late in the day, but better late than never - to the way in which individual liberty, privacy and human rights have been sliced away in Britain, like salami, under New Labour governments that profess to ...
{bt-dorville} Just to prove that my grouse about junction boxes isn't just aimed at Virgin Media, I thought I'd post to say I've reported a damaged BT one on Dorville Road. This one looks like a car's gone into it. BT (or 'Openreach' as that bit of them style themselves these days) have agreed to have it inspected and repaired, so watch that space...
I note that Gordon brown has spoen out against 100% mortgages whilst Tories too are jumping on the bandwagon to attack crazy loans that their party had no problem in supporting a few months ago. I'd just like to point out that I made the point HERE back in November 2006 ! Step aside Vince Cable.
I've spent the half term week on a nice holiday to New York City with my family. But the first thing to great me in the US was the border control. With some high tech machines they took all of my finger prints! And they took a photo of me. Not even the UK Government has my finger prints, but the US Government does now. The posters showed how the border security people were the face of America. Well that's true, the US Government invades on it's own people's civil liberties as well. The security did seem a little excessive, ...
March 2nd, 7pm. There is going to be a major headache for the local Tories. They are pushing ahead with their budget to:remove £500,000 of funding for Sports Development (from Gainsborough)remove £10,000 per year from the Gainsborough Adventure Playground (GAPA) until it closes (from Gainsborough)close the Trinity Arts Centre (although they are trying to pin this one on the Arts Council) (from
I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that at 27, I'm no longer classed as a 'young person'. In fact, since Thursday I'm not even Lewisham's youngest councillor! So I'm really pleased that as part of the local assembly process, we've launched a survey aimed at young people in Lee Green ward. We've recognised that we're not going to get young people flocking to attend 2 hour long local assembly meetings (though they're very welcome if they want to come!) so we've launched an online survey. We'd like to spread this survey as widely as possible, and we'll be ...
Recently me and a friend have set up a Forum called The Talking Shop which you can visit by following the link to it. You can register if you want but if I don't want you to become a member of my forum I wont allow you! The intended members for the forum are young Asians but personally I don't mind anyone joining it as long as I want you to!
On Saturday this blog carried the news that an ostrich had been knocked down and killed near Ludlow. Stories on the Shropshire Star website tend to acquire more detail a day or two after they have been posted so I checked again. It now informs us: A West Mercia Police control room spokeswoman said: "The ostrich came out of nowhere and collided with a vehicle. Minor damage was caused to the car, but sadly the ostrich died."It is believed the ostrich came from a local farm or residential property.So if anything, the mystery deepens.
Lynn Merrifield from Kingseat is a doughty campaigner for school bus safety. She is rightly concerned for the safety of children, especially primary school children. I recall the first day I put my 4 year old son, Alexander, on the school bus. Even though that bus did have seatbelts it was an alarming prospect for my wee boy. However, thankfully, in seven years at Primary School there wasn't one problem. Unfortunately that's not been the case for so many children who have died travelling to and from school. Last week Lynn and I met with Stagecoach for what was a ...
I have received reports that there has been an upsurge in the number of cowboy builders and tradesmen touting for business in West Fife. If you've been affected I'd be keen to know the details. With the recession biting hard the last thing we need is people being stung by bogus builders. Email with details on willie.rennie.mp@gmail.com
New ICM poll in the Grauniad, just released: Lib Dems: 18% (up 2%) Tories: 42% (down 2%) Labour: 30% (down 2%) Look at the pie: However, these up-or-down figures are based on the last ICM poll for the Grauniad. Compared to the last ICM poll per se, the changes are somewhat different: CON 42(+2) LAB 30(+2) LD 18(-4)
Moorside Primary School, where I am a school governor (and where my son is a pupil), has recently been inspected by OFSTED. I'm pleased to say that the school has been judged as Good and has done really well in the inspection - congratulation to all of the staff, parents, pupils and other governors for [...]
Earlier today I wrote about how the Tories were planning to work with the Lib Dems if they became the government after the next general election but now another view has been brought into the whole discussion by Iain Dale that I think needs to be discussed. The view by Iain is asking the question if the Lib Dems are a pressure group or a political party? Of course the Lib Dems are a political party and we as members of the party do hope to one day be members of a party that runs the UK, its probably gonna ...
The Tories have clearly been listening to Tony Blair's Greatest Hits. One of the best songs on that record is the snappily-titled 'Let's Think Up A Tough-Sounding New Initiative On Crime To Grab A Few Headlines And Then Quietly Forget About It When Its Impracticality Becomes Clear.' I'm sure you must know it - Blair was singing it all the time. It became his signature tune. Well, the Tories have released a cover version, thanks to Chris Grayling And The Shinyheads. And, like most cover versions, it's not as good as the original. Yeah, the lyrics are just the same ...
The dear old Norfolk Blogger really has got a starling in his hard drive over Twitter.His site now has a "Tw*tter" box in the sidebar with these updates:I am using my computer (1 day ago)I ate my tea and went to the toilet (3 days ago)Are you really that sad that you honestly want to keep track of everything I do ? (About 38 years ago)Nich has also done a posting entitled Twitter? Get a life!When
... former Labour leadership contender Bryan Gould, for this splendid effort on Comment is Free.
I very much doubt this report, via Piers Morgan relaying a conversation at Number 10, is true. Say what you like about Simon Cowell but he cannot be enough of a pillock to want to waste time arranging to have himself cryogenically frozen after death, surely?
ConservativeHome co-editor Tim Montgomerie has authored a piece today in which he outlines a debate he claims is being had by senior Tories concerning 'the extent of outreach that should be made to the Liberal Democrats in the event of the Conservatives becoming the governing party at the next General Election.' Here's the meat of it: I understand that a group of shadow ministers believe that one of Tony Blair's bigger strategic mistakes was to row back on co-operation with the Liberal Democrats when he won such a large Commons majority in 1997. These shadow ministers believe that - contrary ...
I think it would be remiss of me not to be the 1,058th Bury-based blogger to offer my congratulations to local director Danny Boyle for his Oscar last night, and for the other seven that "Slumdog Millionaire" picked up. Mr Boyle was of course born in Radcliffe. And despite my own disappointment at not being able to think of a title for this post that wittily utilises the phrase "Boyle in the bag," to describe the Oscar victory, I will continue regardless. It's not often that the words "Radcliffe" and "Academy Award" are found in the same sentence, although some ...
Finally the work to link the traffic signals from the Woodcote Road junction with Stafford Road down to the Melbourne Road pedestrian crossing on Manor Road is underway. Ever since the new pedestrian crossing at Beddington Gardens was put in to prevent more accidents occurring at this junction Colin, Richard & I have been nagging [...]
The new Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling gave a speech today in which he said, Labour has had eleven years and they have collectively failed - their musical chairs based system of home secretaries has left Britain a more dangerous, less civilised place to live in. Now that's odd. Not only because, as Hopi Sen points out, "Chris Grayling is the third Shadow Home Secretary in the last year" but also because on my calculation, the average term of office of a Labour Home Secretary since 1997 (excluding Jacqui Smith, as she is still in post) has been slightly ...
A friend of mine came to visit yesterday. She doesn't live in Prestwich, and hasn't been here for the best part of a year. The first thing she said when she came through the door (after coo-ing at Tam's ring for longer than necessary) was to remark that the graffiti in the area was absolutely shocking. And she's right. It's appalling. Right the way up Butterstile Lane, down Lowther Road and Sandy Lane, into the Clough and along Bury New Road. Virtually every public surface and quite a few private ones are being spoiled and destroyed by criminal vandals. Garden ...
What are the implication's of Kosovo's declaration of independence, one year on?
I've been studiously avoiding the various memes afflicting Facebook of late, not least because there comes a stage when you've filled out so many application forms that you can't think of one more thing to say about yourself, let alone twenty-five.Still, on this occasion I've relented, if only because this one is rather less mentally taxing, apparently hasn't yet infected the blogosphere and is
I drove into the centre of Cambridge today to have a meeting with a colleague and as I walked along The Backs I had one of those moments where it strikes you just how beautiful Cambridge is. My family and I have lived here for the last 3.5 years and absolutely love it - but there is the odd moment when you are suddenly reminded just how lucky you are to live in such a beautiful city. All the crocuses are in bud and by Trinity College there is a purple carpet of them. Truly wonderful and worth taking a ...
We all know that our pavements are in a sorry state and I'm walking most of the streets in the Hardwick Ward at the moment delivering our latest edition of Focus whilst compiling a list for the Highways Department so that we don't get forgotten again when the next round of repair work is done. But spare a thought for those less steady on their feet and those who use mobility scooters. There are plenty of dropped curbs around but not always at the best place to cross and the sorry state of some pavements - especially in the High ...
U Turns! I need to master these - but of the 2 wheeled variety not the political sort. Now that the weather is better I've plucked up courage and sorted out my bike lessons and test - date a closely guarded secret having already failed on U Turns (well throttle control too!) The weather is certainly more conducive - but the pot holed state of the roads means that I will be doing my practice runs in daylight and not risking life and limb on our sorry Cambridge Roads until pot holes are filled in.
There has been much cooing at LDV Towers over three photos released through Nick Clegg's leadership site www.nickclegg.com. To spread the cooing to a grateful nation, here's the link.
Our alert readers will have noticed we had another outage this morning when our site was unavailable for a number of hours. The reason for this was a traffic spike - and despite the jokes, it could well have been because the van-maker LDV was in the news, and we're a top-ten search result for the term LDV. Our current hosting arrangements mean we share a computer with several other websites. When we get a big traffic spike, our performance affects the other users of the computer, and our host sometimes turns us off to make sure the other websites ...
Got an email from the lib dems suggesting that I go digg something. What does anyone think about this? It seems like going and voting things up on aggregators is going to be a new form of spam (spag, anyone?) because loads of special-interest groups are going to try it on - and special-interest bodies are going to have a lot of mindless clickers, whereas the rest of everyone has less of a stake in ruthlessly voting things down. This could lead to the ruin of aggregators by diluting their usefulness. At the very least it seems that the aggregator ...
Over at the Mirror's website, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has an article (submitted, the Voice assumes, before his paternity leave started!) calling on politicians from all parties 'to get together and give politics a proper Spring-clean.' Here's an excerpt: Politicians are the least trusted people in the country, and restoring people's faith will be a big task. So we can't do it like a succession of governments have always wanted - bit by bit, issue by issue, crisis by crisis. We need to think big on the way politics works. If we have flimsy rules for expenses, people will ...
Yep, I know you've all missed me, but fret no more - Verily, I am amongst you once again. Real LifeTM has caught up with me over the last few months and blogging will still be intermittent, but as the social planners have scented the blood of the capitalist pigs* and are soaping each other up I feel I need to add at least a small voice to the side of liberalism (no qualifier needed) and to help keep that scarlet standard furled for a little longer. * Now, before you all start crying into your home-grown cornflakes and putting ...
I saw old Vincey-boy on BBC Breakfast this morning. He was welcoming the news of Northern Rock re-entering the mortgage lending game.There was one piece of, what I think is, excellent news buried in a report in the Observer yesterday. I had to blink and clean my glasses and read it again twice:Northern Rock has been able to repay more than £15bn of the £26bn in taxpayer loans it received when it
LDV has asked today asked the Government for a bailout, prior to the weekend the trade union Unite warned a major car manufacturer was in danger and it could cost up to 6,000 jobs.
Over the course of February the opinion polls have taken a pleasant and upward turn for the Liberal Democrats. Almost all have had us up or holding steady, with three standouts in particular showing the party surging, by 3 points to 18 with Populus, and more impressively by 6 points to 22 (the level of the last General Election) with both ICM and ComRes. Many people have speculated as to why this has been. In my view it's been because of a combination of things. A couple of weeks ago, Nick Clegg announced the Lib Dems new education proposals, getting ...
The Lib Dems nationally have started a campaign to highlight the impact that the changes to European working time laws could have on retained firefighters. These firefighters could find that their time working as a firefighter is included in their working week, thereby restricting any retained firefighter on a standard 40-hour week to just eight hours in their "second job". With time spent "on-call" also being included this could amount to only one night a week. These rule changes have the potential to lead to dangerous shortages in fire cover across the UK, at a time, when according to figures ...
I was skimming through the google news feed late last week, and came across this article from the Daily Record on Alex Salmond's fitness to continue as an MP as well as First Minister for Scotland. The long and short of the story is that he has boasted that he "consistently rank[s] in the top 10 hardest working Scottish MPs based on data from the Parliamentary Online Information System", when this is flatly untrue. The Daily Record goes on to provide the true picture of the First Minister's performance as MP for Banff and Buchan in 2007-08 where he tabled ...
Yesterday's 0-0 draw between Everton and Newcastle will hardly live long in the memory for its sparkling football (or lack of it), but may prove to be a big turning point in Everton's season. Although its severity has not yet been confirmed, Mikel Arteta's injury looks to be pretty bad, and will surely result in him missing a good chunk of Everton's remaining games, if not the rest of the season. Without trying to sound shrill, so much of our success was dependent on him staying fit and pulling the strings in midfield. You need only have to look at ...
If you want to become a millionaire and think setting up a dot com business might make you one you are mistaken, actually all you need to do is get elected as an MEP and within your first term you have the potential of becoming a millionaire. A report that you can see here (pdf) shows how an MEP can become rich just by fiddling the numbers and most of it is perfectly legal, no wonder so many people enter politics as Councillors and then dive straight into becoming MEP's. MEP's who become millionaires according to the report used to ...
Of course Liberal Democrat Voice aren't demanding Government funding. But I was thrown for a while when I saw a headline that read that LDV were having financial difficulties and so needed a loan from the Government to keep going. Given that this was straight after I had clicked on the Liberal Democrat Voice website [...]
I can't put into words how disgusted and angry I am with this. Children are not going to be SCARED by Cerrie. They might be curious as to why she only has one arm, in which case their parents might have to have a little talk with them, but surely encouraging parents and children to talk about this sort of thing is GOOD? I don't think this is about children being scared at all, I think this is about parents being scared to discuss things with their children. And you know what? I'm scared to discuss some things with MY ...
Barclays are currently converting the former Gap store in Sheffield City Centre in to a new branch to replace the one at the bottom of Fargate, and which from the appearance of the building must be nearly ready to open. But I was surprised, when I noticed on the side of the building the name [...]
As a filthy liberal, I'm a vegetarian. I'm not quite sure why I am any more - I'm concerned with animal welfare, but I'm not the animal rights-type I used to be. But as a vegetarian, I'm always on the look out for interesting food-stuffs imitating meat. It's not so much that I miss it, I'm [...]
One of the questions on Politics Home this morning (I am a panel member of this daily tracker of opinions political) was do I think the banks should go back to a separation between our old safe, solid high street retail bank - and the speculative, take risks, make loads of dosh type investment banks? Yes I do! I can remember being absolutely irate when our reliable, responsible banks were freed of such regulation and zoomed off to the realm of the speculative. I was upset because I liked slow and steady. Perhaps this was because of a salutary experience ...
I agree with Vince Cable MP that cuts in interest rates have reached their limit and that we now need different policies to stimulate the economy . Despite general support for Keynesian economics (cf the Paradox of Thrift), Vince spoke out in favour of the virtue of saving and pointed out that there are 7 times more savers than mortgage borrowers who are being penalised under the present climate. The global recession was first brought about by the collapse of the sub-prime housing market in the US. Hence it is back to the US that I would like to return ...
News of what happens in Cabinet reaches the public by one of two routes: it's leaked by ministers or the 30 year rule means it is released automatically. Given that we are now aware of recent Cabinet conversations about who said what on bankers' bonuses, clearly the former is the route used recently to keep the public informed. Cabinet conversations get leaked normally for a reason. In this
Walking past the Omni centre this morning and passed this great sign! ------------------
Miriam Gonzalez Durantez and Nick Clegg have become parents again, for the third time with a new son - Miguel.
On Friday night, Ros and I paid a visit to the campaign headquarters in Bradford East, to meet a group of young people who were raising funds for Bradford Nightstop by sleeping in the office.As part of the event, they had invited Bev Johnson, one of the Nightstop organisers, to give a talk on the work that they do to get young people off of the streets and into a place of safety. It turned out to
Tory Home has a blog post that suggests Tories within their shadow cabinet are planning to work with the Lib Dems if they become the next government because they believe its what brought problems for Tony Blair as he didn't work with the Lib Dems. The Tories might give the Lib Dems ministerial positions if they become the government but they wont be of a high profile as obviously they would want them places themselves. Personally if the Lib Dems haven't asked for this then I am surprised that the Tories are thinking like this and would like to congratulate ...
Nick Clegg is to take leave out of work as his wife has had a third child as reported by the BBC today. Nick Clegg will leave the economic genius Vince Cable to step in at Prime Ministers Questions over the next couple of weeks whilst he is on paternity leave. I would like to congratulate Nick Clegg on behalf of this blog and hope he has more happy times whilst leader of the Liberal Democrats. Become Prime Minister at the next general election probably isn't going to be one of them happy times, but still...
Congratulations to Our Glorious Leader and Mrs Glorious Leader on the birth of Miguel. Hopefully all are healthy and will remain so. Congrats also to Small Person's little friend Ella, who has a new baby sister today.
Three cheers for Sir Ken Macdonald's comments on need to tackle financial fraud more robustly in The Times today
I never ceased to be amazed at the capacity of former Ministers to perform a full circle on policies and principles they held as sacrosanct when in office but now consider as inappropriate and dangerous. I suppose that if you do not have the constant attention of civil servants and the media as you did when you held office then you have to be a bit creative so as to stay in the spotlight. In David Blunkett's case that involves embracing his former opponents on the civil liberties front so as to appear radical and left wing. According to this ...
Warmest congratulations and good wishes to Nick Clegg and Miriam Gonzalez Durantez on the birth of their third child, Miguel. Here's the BBC report: Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's wife Mirian [sic] has given birth to a son Miguel - their third child. The younger brother for Antonio, seven, and Alberto, four, was born at Kingston Hospital on Sunday. Mother and son are both said to be doing well. ... [Mr Clegg] has said he will take paternity leave, with his deputy Vince Cable to fill in at prime minister's questions. Mr Clegg's wife - Miriam Gonzalez Durantez - is ...
Welcome to the world Miguel, third son of Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam.
The South Wales Evening Post reveals that the staff being recruited to drive the new Metro bus in Swansea are to be known as 'pilots'. Tickets will be collected by 'service hosts'. You could not make it up.
Steve Webb MP, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary (and Chair of the Social Liberal Forum's Advisory Board), will be leading a policy discussion at Portcullis House, Westminster, on Wednesday 25 February. To give people some food for thought, we have also republished Steve and Jo Holland's article on Communicating Social Liberalism from Reinventing the State: Social Liberalism for the 21st Century on the Social Liberal Forum website (the full Reinventing the State will be back in print next month). If you can't attend this Wednesday, Steve has said he will be developing a short talking points briefing ...
Former junior Minister Chris Mullin has published his diaries and judging from this article in the Western Mail they sound like a good read. He describes John Prescott's Department of Environment, Transport and Regions as the 'Department of Folding Deckchairs' and says that his main role was to laugh sychophantically at the former Deputy Prime Minister's jokes. I wonder who on the fifth floor of Tŷ Hywel is designated to laugh at Rhodri Morgan's jokes?
Professor Sir Michael Marmot warns of a cancer epidemic brought on by increased levels of obesity in the UK and across much of the world,splashed across page 9 of the Observer. On page 27, the Observer's food critic Jay Rayner rails against fast food and sings the praises of the Government's Change4Life (a.k.a. "Official: it's OK to bully fat kids and sneer at their parents") programme. Is this true? Will cancer, as a cause of death, double in the next 40 years? Is it true, as Professor Marmot suggests, that one third of all cancers are caused by obesity and ...
It strikes me that there's nothing intrinsically brave in politicians assuming control of something. This is the default action, the action that politicians are expected to take. "Do something," cry the mob, and the politicians reply, "We have the courage to take this action." Assuming control of something is not brave. Foolhardy, perhaps - ignorant and arrogant, perhaps - but it does not require courage. For politicians to be brave, to display courage, they need to be willing to relinquish control. That's hard. That's difficult. I think of it like this: Sitting in a passenger seat of a car is ...
In May 2008 I blogged about the power of money in British politics, and how it has reshaped the forms and methods of political parties, especially the Conservatives. The point of the post was to highlight the sinister role of Michael Ashcroft as a major source of finance to the Conservatives. The news that the electoral commission has launched an investigation into the donations offered by the Belizean billionaire rather underlines my point at the end of that first post: that the Conservatives may rue the day that they entered into such a close relationship with such a controversial figure. ...
For some reason Guido Fawkes' Blog causes my mobile (an HTC Tytn, South Korea's finest export) to crash. But, reading his blog from the safety of my laptop, and despite not always agreeing with him, he is completely right to condemn MPs using expenses to build up personal property portfolios. I would go even further than to say that no [...]
I've been Twittering for nearly a week now. I'm finding it a great way to get updates by 'following' various newscasters. Some of them 'follow' all their Twitter followers (my updates are apparently now being 'followed' by both Barack Obama and No 10 Downing Street). Some don't. The BBC News feed, for example, has 9,767 followers [...]
Not sure why this one feels obscure but it does - up in Hampstead we have Vane Close. It's just by the Royal School on Hampstead High Street, just down from Greenhill. And tucked away under the tree that grows over the corner of the street is this plaque. Now I'm a bit of a history fiend but Harry Vane fell out of my knowledge and so a bit of digging has been in order to find out more: - who - when - why http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Vane All of which made me realise that there are substantive characters who just pass ...
An alternative to the Libertarian non-aggression principle: An individual must not injure any other individual, or, through inaction, allow another individual to come to harm.Individuals must obey orders given by those designated as being responsible for the care of others, except where orders conflict with rule 1.All individuals have a duty to stay fit, healthy and keep alive where-ever possible, unless in doing so rule 1 or 2 is broken.Discuss.
10. Phil Willis With his fuzzy hair and 100mph balls, Philip Dylan Willis was a fearsome sight for any batsman and later became MP for Harrogate and Liberal Democrat education spokesman. After a particularly destructive performance, I once suggested that I should fetch him a cup of tea whilst he put his feet up on the pavilion balcony and watched our batsmen knock off their meagre target. It was typical of the man that he should decline my offer on the grounds that this would constitute a "two-tier service". Earlier selections:Len HuttonC.B. FryDavid SteelViolent Bonham-CarterMike BrearleyL.T. HobhousePaul KeetchNancy SeearSimon Hughes ...
A magazine article of mine about why we need a public inquiry into how the various public services failed to protect Baby P has just come out. You can read it on my website.
Plans announced the the Queen's speech to enhance maternity leave and toughen equality legislation are the latest victims of the recession if Lord Voldemort of Hartlepool and Foy has his way. The Business Minister sees these enhancements to the workplace as anti-business and therefore as part of the confidential memo calling on Minister to: "advise on a moratorium on legislation and legislative announcements made but not yet implemented that will entail additional costs for businesses". these measures have come under the Mandelson axe. However, these policies have been championed by Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, who has rallied for ...
The BBC report on potentially the worse split yet for Plaid Cymru, with their leadership at odds with activists on tuition fees who in turn, seem powerless to stop the coalition government going ahead and scrapping the Welsh opt out that is currently protecting home-grown students from having to pay them.At Plaid Cymru's national council on Saturday members passed a motion reaffirming the party's
Be careful that Kenny MacAskill hasn't been drinking before performing the next hand brake turn in SNP policy. For as a comment on Kez's blog also failed to omit any mention of plans to review alcohol policy possibly because this is going to be watered down from what was originally announced it seems. The SNP were promising that they would lift the minimum age for off sales to 21 across Scotland, yet it seems that MacAskill is leaving this decision up to local authorities rather than making a central decision. There is also a problem with the pledge to make ...
And a broken promise as well. Plaid Cymru Ministers are set to allow Labour to introduce top-up fees in Wales despite the opposition of their own party. Are there any principles they will not sell-out on to stay in government? Update: More on this from Freedom Central here.
One of the best parts of standing for the European Parliament is the chance to meet Liberal Democrat campaigners across the South East. This weekend I was in Gillingham & Rainham and Epsom & Ewell. In Gillingham I hit the streets with Parliamentary Candidate Councillor Andy Stamp other local Liberal Democrats. Gillingham & Rainham is an interesting constituency. At [...]
Work started on Sunday night to carry out essential resurfacing in Woodcote Road between the railway bridge and Sainsbury's. As a direct result of my meeting with the Council's engineers to discuss the disruption that this work could cause the main work has been compressed to take place on two nights - Sunday and Monday. There will be some disruption to parking in Beddington Gardens, Shotfield and Ross Parade as a result of diverted traffic. Work will also start in Woodcote Road south of the cross roads with Stanley Park Road and Stafford Road shortly.
I have blogged before about the Natural History Museums exhibition on Charles Darwin, the impact it had on me, and how it managed to spark off in my head a number of ideas. Amongst these were some about the role of collaboration and mentoring.For some reason I had always pictured Darwin as an aloof and solitary figure. The lone genius conducting experiments in his isolated country garden. Going
